Exploring new tools to add to my toolbox

OpenSCAD for Motion Visualization

Now that I’ve climbed the initial learning curve for OpenSCAD, it’s time to start working towards my goal for doing this: I want to visualize arbitrary motion between components as a rough draft to see how things move in virtual space.

This is not an unique capability in CAD packages. Both Fusion 360 and Onshape have ability to define object hierarchies and visualize their motion. However, they are both focused on the assemblies that have been mechanically defined in CAD. If I wanted to visualize a hinge-like motion between two objects, I first need to build that hinge in CAD or the software would “helpfully” tell me I’m trying to perform an impossible motion in my design.

In contrast, OpenSCAD does not care. I can place a rotate() operation anywhere I want and it won’t care if there’s no hinge in the design. It is happy to let me rotate about an arbitrary point in 3D space with no hardware around it. This makes OpenSCAD ideal for trying out how wild ideas would (or would not) work in virtual space, before getting down to the nitty-gritty about how to build the mechanisms to implement those wild ideas.

This means some cool-looking ideas would turn out to be impossible to implement, but that’s OK. I wanted something with a lot more freedom than I can get in the CAD packages that limit what I can do for (in their view) my own protection.

But that’s still in the future. For now I’m still climbing the learning curve of moving objects around in OpenSCAD in a way that ties into the built-in animation capability and generating animated GIF to illustrate concepts.

As a learning exercise, I’ve re-implemented the motion of the Luggable PC hinge. Thanks to OpenSCAD flexibility, I didn’t have to spend time building the hinge before I move it!